Question

I’ve started reading The Pragmatic Programmer, which I am enjoying and learning heaps form but I’m having difficulty understanding the difference between tracer bullets and prototypes. Are tracer bullets like having all of the views of an application there but not yet adding the entire functionality?

Thanks

Answer 1

The trace bullet approach is to get something working right away. In the book they state:

Tracer code is not disposable: you write it for keeps. It contains all the error checking that any piece of production code has. It simply is not fully functional.

Where a prototype might be throw-away that’s not my read of what they’re advocating in this particular essay.

The essence to me seems to be, if there is some difficult part of the system try to show that it can be done, before you spend a bunch of time supporting a solution that’s never going to be shippable.